Willits matmen bring home five medals from McKinleyville tourney

The Willits High School boys' wrestling team earned five medals last weekend in McKinleyville during their second tournament of the year.

The top finish came from Joe Anaya, who at 111 pounds took second place. Sam White (220) placed third, and Jacob Jepson (106), Marcos Diaz (154) and Hank Harris (160) each placed fourth.

"It was a good learning experience for a lot of our younger kids," said Coach Mike Colvig. "And for some of the more experienced guys, it gave them an idea of what their competition is going to look like this year and what tough wrestling is about."

This year's team is young, and will spend much of the season laying down a foundation.

"It's a very young team, and when you have a young team you are really trying to develop the wrestler?and that's a long process," says Colvig. "It's going to take a whole season.

"You might have someone at the beginning of the year that is learning, and by the middle of the year they are starting to really get their stride. By the end of the year they are wrestling kids that beat them badly at the beginning of the year, and now they are wrestling them the whole three rounds and actually competing," he explains.

Although this is his first year coaching wrestling, Colvig is no stranger to the sport. A former wrestler himself, his roots go run deep.

"My dad coached wrestling for 27 years," he said. "I grew up in a wrestling family. I've wanted to coach [wrestling] for the past four years, but it just didn't work out for me to do it."

Opportunity knocked earlier this year when the former girls' wrestling coach Jesse Rees, announced she would not be returning this season. Colvig, who also is the school's librarian and swim coach, jumped at the opportunity.

He joins Brian Bowles who, in his eighth year as wrestling coach at Willits High, says he and Colvig will coach both teams together and will rotate traveling with the girls' team.

Last weekend, Bowles and the five girl wrestlers traveled to Half Moon Bay to compete in the Peninsula Tournament.

A 3:30 a.m. departure time from Willits didn't seem to affect Karina Silverstein; in her first match she beat her opponent, 14-3.

"She did a fantastic job," said Bowles. "She looked like a different wrestler compared to last year."

Although she went on to lose her following two matches, Silverstein (138 pounds) remained competitive, making it through the rounds and fighting her way deep into the match.

"All of her matches she wrestled as opposed to just being taken down," said Bowles.

Silverstein finished the tournament in sixth place.

Alyssa Alvarez (108) took second place, with one win and one loss.

Adri Borjon (146) won one match and lost two, taking fourth place. One of her losses came against teammate Megan Nelson.

Nelson (154), who was competing in her first tournament of the year, took third place with two wins and one loss.

Gabby Agenbroad (165) took third place.

It was a successful tournament for the Willits team, with four of the five wrestlers medaling.

"They each improved in each match as the tournament went on," said Bowles, "and also showed improvement from the weekend before."

Girls' wrestling is currently the fastest growing high school sport in the United States.

"These girls are working their tails off in a sport that historically is a male-dominated sport," Bowles said of his team.

And now that women's wrestling is an Olympic event, he notes the kids going through the program now are potential future Olympians.

"I am impressed with their attitudes, and their ability to go after it and to rebound from defeat and learn from it," he says.

"I use wrestling as a vehicle to teach character," he explains. "You aren't going to wrestle your whole life, but you are going to use the characteristics you built in the sport, such as appropriate aggressiveness and concession when you lose. It's okay to lose, but you just have to keep your head up."

Both the girls' and boys' teams will compete Saturday in the Holiday Bash Wrestling Tournament in Fort Bragg.